St. Landry democrat., 1887-10-22

trollers of special lines and sections for
which they have displayed genius.
This subdivision of responsibility is
many-sided business organizations, and
in some instances the "store," with its
fifty different and specialized interests, is
a real clearing house, in which iobbers
deposit their unused stock, or that which
is finer and better suited to city trade,
and the nominal owner is only a figure
head or general superintendent of the
whole. Two of the largest and most ia
nous of the china and pottery depart
ments of two large houses in two cities
are controlled by one man, who supplies
and manages both, merely paying a
rental.
The old conservative methods of doing
| business no longer hold with the masses !;
they only succeed to limited extent in
specialized ways with the conservative
| few. The majority want sensations,
like to be amused, and always 60 with
! the crowd and where the crowd is The
| 1CdSou VI tuio ID uol Holu ~ Iilo. Inv -
monotonous; the variety, the excitement,
the pleasures we read about are accessi-
bic to very few. There is an intoxica-
ton in the panoramic display of stuffs
in the dazzling contrasts and varieties of
color, in the possibilities which seem to
lie in the expenditure of every dollar
Then every great modern store has its
"bargain" counters-anOther original
idea with A. T. Stewart and the chances
on occasions are positively madden
ing A short time since New York
store advertised a sale of brocaded velvets
at less than a dollar per yard, fabrics
that would ordinarily bring from two
dollars and half to six dollars per yard.
No one person could buy more than six
yards enough for combination dress
or whole autumn wrap. The excite
ment created was indescribable. The
store was besieged buyers could neither
get in nor out The counter was held
by a solid wall of women, six deep,
from early morning till the close at
evening, and thousands left who were
unable to approach their objective point.
Purchasers could not examine; they
simply clutched a piece of the goods,
and held on to it till they could get an
attendant to cut their supply OFT.
Women tainted, dresses were torn, but
those who secured the prize were as
proud as soldier who carried off flag
from Waterloo.
The dry goods and women's furnishing
houses are tlourshing beyond precedent,
and the window display is reduced to
sCience-at least it has become special
branch of business, and not the least i'm
pOrtant. One, and only one, of the old
houses in New York resists this tide of
snowy development and modern mania
for boots, bonnets and bric-a- brac; keeps
its blinds obstinately down and its coun
tiers and warerooms obstinatelv clear OF
everything but that which legitimately
belongs to its highc class city trade. Its
fortunes were already secured before the
tidal wave struck business, and its hold
upon an exclusive class of buyers
is so strong, through its old-fashioned
business methods and control of specially
manufactured wares and fabrics, that it
can afford to gauge its own gait and
retain an individuality which many
would regret to see it lose. Yet thirty
wears ago, when this same firm occupied
little shop in Canal street, they WED
with their neighbors in making their
windows attractive. But then New York
was a village, or at most small town of
less than 100000 inhabitants.
With the acquisition of size and the
growth of wealth came the cultivation
of the exclusive spirit in business-but
this rarely pays" 1T is the crowd
that pays the dividend, not the oc-
casional first-class fare" remark the rail
road magnates in England, and it IS so
more or less everywhere and in every
thing. The great successes are now
made by the all-round mercantile asso
Citations, which cater to every interest,
and provide popular show-place for the
sight-seer, as well as varied opportuni-
ties and unification of objective points
to the shopper. In this desideratum, from
the truly great and metropolitan point
of view, New York is lacking. We have
plenty of good shops, but they are usually
specialized or not broad enough in gen
eralization.
1t is doubtful now if any one man could
control capital enough for 80 stupendous
an enterprise as the times call for, but
the want must be filled, and it will proba-
bly, be by syndicate of jobbers, repre-
senting importing as well as American
manufacturing interests. In these days,
and in New York, we ought to have
house where one could 60 and see faith
fully represented complete dress of every
kind and degree-from the pretty even
ing dress of the debutante and the stately
reception dress of the grande dame to the
tailor-made gown and simplest wrapper.
All kinds of dress should be arranged in
groups and classified, and might easily be
displayed without injury on revolving
frames, so that an outfit for bride or
schoolgirl could be seen and its cost cal
culated with the least expenditure of
time and with ease and pleasure to the
buyer.
Under the same roof it ought to be pos
sible to select all the furniture needed for
house or fiat; for the 100000 house and
the $300-per-annum apartment not by
ransacking and overhauling piece by
piece, going from one floor to another
and back again, but by seeing all needful
and suitable articles in proper position,
from the gridiron to the dining table, and
the dinner set of Haviland china, or blue
Jersey crockery, to the ''shams" of the
bedroom set of decorated pine, solid
mahogany or pink and white enamel.